News note

UNICEF and Xinhua join forces to promote children’s rights

BEIJING, 5 November 2009 – UNICEF and Xinhua News Agency today signed a Memorandum of Understanding outlining joint plans to promote better understanding of the situation of children worldwide. The efforts will culminate on 20 November 2009, Universal Children’s Day, the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. On that date, UNICEF will launch a special edition of its State of the World’s Children Report and Xinhua will produce a 24 hour live television broadcast called the “Global News Day for Children.”

“The Convention on the Rights of the Child is one of the few global commitments that link together virtually every country on the planet in common action,” said Dr Yin Yin Nwe, the UNICEF Representative signing the agreement in Beijing today, “even so there is a vast gap between what the whole world has agreed to and what actually happens to children everywhere. That’s why we are so pleased to get the message of children’s rights out loudly by joining forces with one of the largest media organizations in the world.”

The new UNICEF-Xinhua agreement kicks off a global partnership of news reporting about children through all of Xinhua’s multi-media channels and 117 international bureaus. UNICEF will collaborate with Xinhua journalists on coverage of children’s issues, sharing its expertise and on-the-ground knowledge of the situation of children in the more than 150 countries where it operates.

“The global media campaign for children and the 24 hour television coverage planned for Universal Children’s Day on 20 November is an initiative jointly promoted by Xinhua News Agency and UNICEF, with strong support from hundreds of media organizations,” said Mr. Zhou Xisheng, Deputy Executive Director of Xinhua News Agency, “It aims to raise awareness of children’s situation throughout the world, and to promote the protection of child rights by governments as well as the general public, with special emphasis on the media sector’s social responsibility toward children.”

Xinhua plans to produce comprehensive internet, television, photography and text coverage of children’s issues to improve public awareness of children’s rights and interests, and to promote increased actions from the world’s citizens for children.

In an effort to amplify the effect of the program and live coverage, Xinhua has designed a logo for the “Global news Day for Children” child rights advocacy activities and the 24-hour global broadcast.

Global news Day for children highlights

- Xinhua journalists will work with local civil society groups in various countries to produce special profiles of 10 children affected by complex challenges such as armed conflict, environmental degradation, natural disaster poverty, disability and poor access to education and health, to present the human side of the situation of children.

- A global children’s photography campaign: "Children's Eyes on the World", will be organized to highlight the life and dreams of children from their own perspectives.

- An internet poll on the current situation and future development of children will collect and report opinions from all parts of the world.

- An official website of the program and media coverage was launched Thursday by www.xinhuanet.com and www.chinaview.cn for subscribers to browse, download the logo and acquire other information pertaining to the event.

- From 8 a.m. (Beijing time) on Nov. 20, Xinhua will work with all participating media organizations to launch a 24-hour, multimedia "relay" coverage on six continents. It will include the sharing of TV specials on children, joint TV coverage of the global events marking Universal Children's Day, exchanges of TV programs and the live broadcasts of text, photos, audio and video on each other's platforms.

- Starting on Nov. 5, Xinhua will publish special reports daily, in Chinese and other languages, on issues of public concern, including children's safety, subsistence, development and future, to give comprehensive and in-depth coverage of the subsistence and development of worldwide children.